.grilled skewered steak w/ roasted red pepper salsa.

This was another recipe I made for our appetizer night last week. When I was working up my app menu, I wanted to make sure I had a little bit from each food group. I had brie puffs (dairy and grain), italian stuffed mushrooms (veggie), crab cakes with the chipotle lime aioli (seafood), and I needed a meat. I had some flank steak in the freezer so I got that out to thaw. It was the perfect addition for our meal.

This is a great appetizer too. One I will be making for sure when I have a party!

You'll need one jar of roasted red pepper and 1/2 a can of diced tomatoes.

Chop up 1 clove garlic, 1 jalapeno (seeded), and 1/2 of one small onion.

If you want absolutely no heat in this salsa, leave out the jalapeno. If you want some, feel free to add as much or as little as you desire.

In a saucepan, add a little olive oil and saute the onion, garlic, and jalapeno for a minute taking care not to burn the garlic.

Drain the liquid out of the pepper jar. Do a quick chop to make sure there are no big pieces left.

Add that and the half can of diced tomatoes to the saucepan. Season with salt and pepper.

Cook over medium high heat for about 4 minutes, stirring often, then reduce to low and let stew for 10 minutes.

Now the night before our appetizer night, I put the flank steak in a ziploc with crushed cloves of garlic (2) a drizzle of olive oil, and some salt and pepper. The longer this can sit in the fridge, the better the flavor will be because the garlic will absorb into the flesh.

Thinly slice the steak. Remember, this is an appetizer. You don't want to have big honkin pieces of meat on the skewer because it will make it more difficult to eat.

Make sure you cut on the cross-grain.

Skewer up the steak.

I'm using my grill pan but you can use your bbq grill. In fact, the bbq grill will give it some awesome smoky flavor. If you use the bbq grill, please make sure you soak the skewers well. You don't want them to burn to a crisp.

Grill for 3 minutes on each side. Pull from the grill and place on a platter. Put the salsa in a bowl with a spoon so people can scoop some out on their plates.

Printable version:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AZ-Z_fQXybIkZGcydmZqcW1fMTY4ZjViZGJ0Y2s&hl=en

.mongolian beef.

Mongolian Beef is a FAVORITE of ours when we go to P.F. Changs. A sweet teriyaki sauce coated on strips of tender beef and slices of green onion. Yummy! My sister, Marcia sent me the copy cat recipe for this years ago and I make it on occasion. It's not hard so I'm not sure why I don't make it more often! I hope this becomes a favorite in your home. :)

In a saucepan, heat some olive oil. Saute 3-4 cloves minced garlic and about 2 teaspoons minced gingerroot. If you don't have gingerroot, you can use ground ginger but it won't give you the exact taste.








Saute only a minute or else your garlic/ginger will burn. Quickly add:

1 c. soy sauce
1 c. water and
2 c. brown sugar

Bring this to a boil and then reduce heat to low.










Let it bubble and reduce for about an hour and half. You want this mixture to reduce to where it's really thick and syrupy and will coat the back of a spoon.

[NOTE: If you want to make double... triple the recipe, you can store this in a jar in the fridge for a month or two. Makes for quick meals especially if you don't have an hour or two to let the sauce reduce each time you want teriyaki.]












This is flank steak. About 2 pounds of it.

Holding your knife at a 45 degree angle, you want to slice the meat thinly.






Put the sliced meat into a ziploc and dump in about 1/4 c. cornstarch. Seal and shake to coat the pieces.

Heat oil in a wok or skillet on medium heat.










Carefully put some strips of beef in the hot oil and "flash fry" for 2 minutes.








Remove from the oil and place on a paper towel. Repeat until all the beef has been fried.












Put the fried beef, some sliced green onion, and the teriyaki sauce in a large bowl. Stir to coat. Transfer to a baking dish and put in a 350* oven for 15-20 minutes. This will allow the sauce to cook into the meat.







To go with this, I quickly sauteed some zucchini, summer squash, and red onion in some olive oil with minced garlic and gingerroot. To keep the veggies from burning, add a little water and soy sauce. Remove from skillet once the onion are nice and soft.

I also served the Mongolian Beef with steamed rice.

Printable version:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_25fvmknpd3